Lover Unbound

"You were?"

"Never seen anything like it before." She nodded to the PT room. "I want to stay here with you guys until your brother's healed up, okay? I have a bad feeling about him. Can't put my finger on it… He looks all right, but my instincts are ringing, and when they go off like this I'm always sorry if I don't follow them. Besides, I'm not due back to real life until Monday morning anyway."

V froze with the handrolled on the way up to his lips.

"What?" she said. "There a problem with that?"

"Ah… no. No problem. At all."

She was staying. A little longer.

V smiled to himself. So this was what wi

Chapter Nineteen

As John stood in the line in front of ZeroSum with Blay and Qhui

"I'm so not getting any younger here." Qhui

John had to admit the guy looked tight tonight: black open-collared shirt, black trousers, black boots, black leather jacket. With his dark hair and his mismatched eyes, he was getting a lot of attention from the human females. For example, right now two brunettes and a redhead were strolling down the line, and what do you know, all three of them did a head snap as they went by Qhui

Blay cursed. "My man over here is going to be a menace, aren't you?"

"You'd better believe it." Qhui

Blay shook his head, then sca

He'd said he'd gotten the gun from a cousin of his and it was all hush-hush. But then, it had to be. One of the rules of the training program was that you weren't supposed to carry when you were out and about. It was a good rule, built on the theory that a little knowledge was a dangerous thing, and trainees shouldn't front like they had half a brain when it came to fighting. Still, Blay had said he wasn't going downtown without some metal, and John had decided to pretend he didn't know what that bulge was about.

And there was also a little part of him that thought if they ran into Lash, it might not be a bad idea.

"Well, hey, ladies," Qhui

John glanced over. A pair of blondes were standing in front of Qhui

The one on the right, who had hair down to her ass and a skirt the size of a paper napkin, smiled. Her teeth were so white they gleamed like pearls. "We were going to Screamer's, but… if you're heading in here, we might change our plans."

"Make it easy on all of us and join us in line." He bowed, sweeping his arm in front of him.

The blonde looked at her friend, then pulled a little Betty Boop maneuver, hip and hair swinging. It looked well rehearsed. "I just love a gentleman."

"I'm one to my very core." Qhui

"This is Blay and John."

The girls beamed up at Blay, who flushed the color of his hair, then the two did a cursory pass over John. He got a quick pair of head nods and then the focus was back on his friends.

Putting his hands in the windbreaker he'd borrowed, he moved out of the way so Betty's friend could squeeze in next to Blay.

"John? You okay there?" Blay asked.

John nodded and looked at his friend, signing quickly, Just zoning out.

"Oh, my God," Betty said.

John shoved his hands back into his pockets. Shit, she'd no doubt noticed he'd used sign language, and this was going to go one of two ways: She'd either think he was cute. Or she'd pity him.

"Your watch is so hot!"

"Thank you, baby," Qhui

Oh, right. She hadn't noticed John at all.

Twenty minutes later they finally made it up to the club's entrance, and it was a miracle John got in. The bouncers at the door surveyed his ID with everything but a proton microscope, and they were just starting to shake their heads when a third came up, took one look at Blay and Qhui

Two feet past the door and John decided he wasn't into the scene. There were people everywhere, showing so much skin they might as well have been at the beach. And was that couple over there… shit, was that guy's hand up her skirt?

No, it was the hand of the guy behind her. The one she wasn't kissing.

All around, techno music blared, the shrill beats ringing through air that was stuffy with sweat and perfume and something musky that he suspected was sex. Lasers speared the dimness, evidently aiming right for his eyeballs, because wherever he looked they nailed him a good one.

He wished he had sunglasses and earplugs.

He glanced back at the couple-er, threesome. He wasn't sure, but the woman seemed to have her hands down both their pants.

How about a blindfold, too, he thought.

With Qhui

Qhui

All of it reminded him of the time before he'd come to live with the Brotherhood. When he'd been out in the world alone he'd been used to being the smallest one around, and man, that was true here. Everyone was taller than he was, the crowd looming over him, even the women. And it brought out all of his instincts. If you had few physical resources to protect yourself with, you had to rely on your twitchy senses: Two feet and hauling ass was the strategy that had always saved him.

Well, saved him except for that one time.

"God… you are so tight." In Qhui

Blay had no game, evidently, because he had no quick comeback. But he was definitely not brushing them off, letting Betty's hands go wherever they wanted.

Qhui

Man, the girls were eating that shit up, their eyes flaring as he came through the crowd.

"Ladies, I need a tip for my efforts." He slipped Blay one of the beers, took a swig of another, and held the other pair over his head. "Gimme a little of what I want."

Betty was on the ball, putting both her hands on his chest and stretching up. Qhui